The American Dream In Raisin In The Sun

All in all Mama and Walters dreams both involve money. Mama shows us her longing for the acceptance of society when she immediately buys a house in a white neighborhood, to provide for her family. Walter shows us his desperation to be a valuable human being when he steals money in hopes of starting his liquor business. Walter wants to be respected and live a happy lifestyle for this family. He longs to be the head of the household. Walter see’s himself with a liquor store as having power. It isn’t till the end until he rethinks the values of himself and his family’s future about how there is more to living than just having material riches. Mama only yearns for her family to be respected and live up to what society perceives.

The play A Raisin in the Sun was a fantastic book that had a lot of life lessons within. A Raisin in the Sun was written by Lorraine Hansberry. Lorraine Hansberry was born on May 19, 1930, and grew up in Chicago’s south side just like the characters in the play. This play was first produced on Broadway in 1959, and its success made Hansberry the first African American playwright to win the Best Play of the Year Award from the New York Drama Critics. This play falls under the genre of a dramatic tragedy. The name of the play came from a line for the poem called Harlem or Dream Deferred, written by Langston Hughes. In the poem Hughes asks, “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”. The theme for this unit is The Realization and Disillusionment of the American Dream. Rafael Cruz stated, “ Only in America can someone start with nothing and achieve the American Dream. That is the greatness of this country”. In the play the Youngers became disillusioned with the American Dream.

Lorraine Hansberry's  play, A Raisin in the Sun,  revolves around the positive and negative effects of achieving the American Dream. Hansberry expresses different points of views on the American Dream through the characters and she portrays the daily struggles of African American family going throughout  A Raisin in the Sun. In this play, she can effectively show true life experiences that can have a big impact on a family. Hansberry shows the many different attachments that come with the fulfillment of this American Dream. “What happens to a dream deferred” (Lorraine Hansberry). Throughout A Raisin in the Sun, each family member has their own pursuit of happiness which involves the American Dream. Today, we have similar issues related to back then because we tend to emphasize the importance of dreams. But, we still have struggles of poverty and racism in order to reach success.

A Raisin in the sun shows the hardship many need to face in order to attain this notion of the American Dream. The book did more than then just show what everyone faced, she shows the struggles that many African American families had to face when trying to achieve the notion of the American Dream. She does this by showing the environment that many African American lived in when there was bombing in the neighborhood or when white people would force African American who finally bought a home, out. Lorraine also shows the struggles of the characters of the book like Walter who struggles with the decision he makes and the contradictions that stop him from achieving his goals of being wealthy or when Beneatha goes against the norms of society

A Raisin in the sun shows the hardship many needed to face in order to attain this notion of the American Dream. The play did more than simply show what everyone faced, she shows the struggles that many African Americans families had to face when trying to achieve the notion of the American Dream. She does this by showing the environment that many African Americans lived in when there was bombing in the neighborhood or when white people would force African Americans who finally bought a home, out. Lorraine also shows the struggles of the characters of the play like Walter who struggles with the decision he makes and the contradictions that stop him from achieving his goals of being wealthy or when Beneatha goes against the norms of society by becoming a Doctor and trying to do activities that men usually do.While American Dream is quintessential to America because you’re able to go from nothing to something, this notion is unique to African-American since the society work against them even with having the same aspiration because of the prejudice they faced from the society.

The American Dream can’t be real without… no racism, no sexism, equal rights, equal freedom, and the right to be apart of whatever religion you want to be apart of. The books “Fight Club” and “A Raisin in the Sun” can relate to now because of all these reasons said above.

The definition of the American dream has evolved into different meanings as the years have passed. However, one common aspect that all Americans strive for is to be respected from society. To be respected by society implies that a person is appreciated and known for his or her accomplishments and individuality. In the The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, the idea of the American Dream is portrayed evidently in both timeless classics. The American Dream is the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success through hard work and gain respect from society for those achievements. Jay Gatsby desires respect from wealthy socialites for his achievements in attaining wealth while Walter Lee Younger despairingly hopes to be respected by his family members. Although both characters chase the American Dream of being respected Fitzgerald’s Gatsby does not achieve the American Dream in contrast to Hansberry’s Walter, who does achieve the American Dream due to the differences in the two character's acceptance by society or loved ones.

One of the major conflicts in the play is power struggle between Mama and Walter due to the difference in their view of the American Dream, as shown in the following dialogue,

Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun encompasses all the ideals of the American Dream through her characters: Walter, who embodies the quest for an opportunity for prosperity, Beneatha who wants the freedom to be herself and embrace her African heritage, and Lena (Mama) who buys a home in a white neighborhood pushing the boundaries of social mobility during that time. The Youngers are in a state of poverty, because of this as suggested by Lloyd Brown “their deprivations expose the gap between the American Dream and the Black American reality” (241). However the Youngers attempt to close this gap, challenging the status quo in an effort to better themselves.

    The American Dream, although different for each of us, is what we all aspire to achieve. In Lorraine Hansberry's, play, A Raisin in the Sun, each member of the Younger family desperately hopes for their own opportunity to achieve the American Dream. The American Dream to the Younger family is to own a home, but beyond that, to Walter Younger, it is to be accepted by white society.

Everybody has dreams. Some dreams are small, some are large, and some are seemingly impossible. The American dream is an individual's pursuit and completion of their own dreams through hard work and determination. In Lorraine Hansberry’s book A Raisin in the Sun, Bethena is given all three types of dreams and demonstrates the theme of achieving the American dream by working hard to achieve those dreams. Bethena, an African American woman, was very proud of her African heritage, and she worked hard to preserve it. One thing she made very clear was her hate for “assimilationist Negroes”(Hansberry 81). This was one characteristic that played a significant role in her choosing someone to marry. Her dream of marriage, however, was second to her primary dream of becoming a doctor. This dream of becoming a doctor was by far the most difficult of the three, as not only was she poor, but also living in Chicago in the 1950s and 60s when racism and sexism were still very prevalent. Despite this, Beneatha demonstrated the theme of working hard to achieve her American dream by progressing toward her small dream of honoring her African heritage, her large dream of finding a husband, and her seemingly impossible dream of becoming a doctor.

The majority of the characters in A Raisin in the Sun have unfulfilled dreams. These fantasies for the most part include cash. In spite of the fact that the Younger family appears to be estranged from white working class culture, they harbor an indistinguishable materialistic dreams from whatever is left of American culture. In the 1950s, the cliché American dream was to have a house with a yard, a major auto, and an upbeat family. The Youngers likewise appear to need to experience this fantasy, however their battle to achieve any similarity of it is drastically unique in relation to the battle a comparable rural family may experience, in light of the fact that the Youngers are not a cliché white collar class family. Or maybe, they live in

“To realize the American Dream, the most important thing to understand is that it belongs to everybody. It is a human dream. If you understand this and work very hard it is possible.” However it is not always guaranteed. A Raisin in The Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a story about a family who continues to struggle while reaching towards The American Dream. The American Dream is described as “The ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.” The Youngers are a hard-working family who all have different interpretations of the American Dream. Mama, Walter, and Beneatha’s shared powerful dreams that give the a look into The American Dream. Despite

Having a dream plays an important role in one’s life and varies from person to person. It makes a person’s life purposeful. Some dreams are achievable and some aren’t, but hard work is essential for both of them. More, there are also some dreams that demand long time along with full dedication and devotion, such as dreams of getting freedom, dignity, status etc. In A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry describes throughout the story that how the dreams of the Younger family become “dreams deferred”. The younger family actually represents to all African- Americans families, who after a very long time, hard struggle, and sacrifices are able to achieve equal rights in the society along with whites.

“Check coming today?” The Life Insurance check that Mama will soon be receiving is the source of all the dreams in the Younger family. A major argument that Lorraine Hansberry makes in her play A Raisin in the Sun is the importance of dreams. Dreams are what each member of the Younger family is driven by. Mama wants to have her own home in a nice part of town; she does not want her children growing up in a place with rats. Walter wants to have a successful business so he can surpass the poverty that has plagued his family. And Beneatha wants to get a good education, become a doctor, and marry a nice man. Dreams are especially important to the Younger family as they come from a poverty laden family and desire to live the “American Dream.”